"Tax Cuts for the Rich the AHCA" Tom Denton Letter to the Editor

Tax Cuts for the Rich in the AHCA

Both the Senate and House versions of the AHCA purport to offer lower cost and better insurance coverage to all Americans, a claim belied by CBO scoring of the bills. Careful examination makes clear their true twofold purpose. Republicans’ proposals are the apotheosis of their decades-long campaign for “entitlement reform,” with Medicaid as the target. Provisions in the bill over the next decade will result in reduced Medicaid spending of nearly one trillion dollars. Their spin on AHCA focuses on supposed improvements in cost, coverage, and choice. Don’t be fooled: Trumpcare is about rolling back the health care safety net to a level that better suits Republican priorities.
The leviathan in the room, which is decidedly not part of the spin, is the enormous tax cut for the wealthy built into the bills . . . over $800 billion. “Entitlement reform,” in the form of AHCA, means a massive transfer of wealth from those with limited means—average Americans—to the wealthy.
Perhaps the health care bills could be respected at least as honest efforts to advance Republicans’ philosophical claims: entitlement programs must be modified in order to save them—respected IF the bills focused only on that goal. But the addition of the giant tax cut exposes Trumpcare for what it really is: a cynical and subversive scheme that uses the fig leaf of
health care policy to raid the federal treasury and shower the gold on rich Americans. Ask: why, instead, are Republicans not using that +$800 billion to strengthen the affordability of insurance and expand coverage to anxious Americans?

Publishing History

PJ June 29

"Reproductive Health Act" Elizabeth Lee Letter to the Editor

 Dear Editor: 

The Reproductive Health Act (RHA), S2796, in the NYS legislature, empowers all NYS women to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their families. 

The RHA revises the existing provisions of the law regarding abortion: 

• Ensures that a woman can access the care she needs when her pregnancy places her health at risk and when the fetus is not viable at any time during her pregnancy, 
• to change the legal status of the abortion procedure from the penal code to public health law and 
• to legally protect those who perform the procedure and to expand woman’s access by including advance practice providers.     

The RHA (S2796) passed the NYS Assembly in January, 2017.  It has stalled in the Senate.  We all need to reach out to our State Senators, especially Senator Flanagan, to introduce the RHA on the floor for discussion and a vote.  In these times women in NYS are counting on our leaders to stand up for their health and their lives. 

Elizabeth Lee, PhD, FNP-BC 

Ulster Activist 

Women’s Issues Committee 

Publishing History

Submitted: Albany Times Union 6/20

"State senators should get on board with contraceptive insurance coverage" Letter to Editor Suzanne Murphy

To the Editor,

   New York has an opportunity for the State Senate  to act decisively for our reproductive health care with the Comprehensive Contraception  Act (CCCA) which would improve access to contraceptive methods for both women and men and help reduce unintended pregnancy. It would require health insurance policies to include FDA approved contraceptive methods.

   To contact your State Senators about this Act, please go to https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator, and then call them to let them know that the CCCA  is a top priority for you and that you want them to support it.  

     I’m a retired psychotherapist with over 29 years of experience working with women’s issues, and feel strongly about supporting women's contraceptive rights.

Yours truly,

Suzanne Murphy

U-ACT Women’s Issues

New Paltz, NY

Publishing history

Daily Freeman 6/18

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"We have a Right to Have our Voices Heard" Kathy Adorney Letter to the Editor

We have a right to have our voices heard

The majority of adults in the United States are Pro-Choice, according to the Pew Research Center and a 2016 Marist Poll.

Why are we allowing a minority religious position regarding the “start of life” to determine the rights of all women?
Many ethical and religious traditions, including some Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions, do not support the idea that “life” begins at conception.   When Pro-Life advocates state that abortion is murder, that is their religious opinion.  It is not a universal truth.

The law governing abortion NY was written in 1970.  It does not protect a woman’s right to abortion when the fetus in not viable or when the health of the woman is at risk after 24 weeks. The Reproductive Health Act (RHA), S. 2796, would provide protection for women’s choice in those difficult situations.

However, the Pro-Life religious minority is blocking the passage of the RHA in New York.   Senator John J. Flanagan, the Republican Majority Leader of the NY State Senate, has refused to allow the bill to go to the floor for a vote for three years.  

Please call, email, or write to Senator Flanagan and demand that he bring the RHA to the floor for a vote.   We have a right to to have our voices heard.

Kathryn M. Adorney, Ph.D.

Gardiner, NY 

Uster Activists (U-ACT)

Publishing History

New Paltz News 6/15
Daily Freeman 6/9
Poughkeepsie Journal 6/25

"Bold Racism" Tom Denton Letter to the Editor

Bold Racism—Makes Us Great?

Two stomach-turning recent events are a stark reminder of the new American landscape drawn by Donald Trump’s election. The Los Angeles property of Lebron James, the African American basketball star, was spray painted with the “n” word. In Washington, D.C., for the second time in a week, a noose was found in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Add these two news items to the spiraling list of hate crimes, including the murder of a Manhattan black man by an Army veteran who wanted to make a statement (NY Times). The message behind these actions is unmistakable: bold, unafraid racism has found its voice in 2017. Some would claim that nothing is new; these sorts of criminals have always been lurking in the background. But an honest appraisal would acknowledge that Trump’s campaign unleashed demons that most of us hoped were buried. Trump supporters, at least the fence-sitters, should ask themselves: is there REALLY nothing new here? What IS “making America great again” all about, at least for some people? What license are you giving to the haters? How long can you compartmentalize and not see? When you overhear supermarket conversations, listen to talk radio, and watch tv news, do you hear rumblings of something dangerous? When you see our bellicose president jab his fingers in the air, do you take comfort that he’s not pointing at you—or so you think? What do you think supremacist groups, now confidently on the march, are hearing that you profess not to hear?

Publishing History

PJ (USA Today, other Gannett) 6/10 online

NP Times 6/15

Herald Record 6/7 

"AHCA Lies" Tom Denton Letter to the Editor

AHCA Lies (shortened version)

It’s difficult to sort out the most egregious of House Republicans’ excuses for their “repeal and replace” American Health Care bill, a multicar pileup initiated by its Paul Ryan brain trust. A common refrain has been that they knew it was going to be changed by the Senate anyway. Another has been that no state is really going to request the waivers we’ve included in the bill (wink, wink). Locally, we’ve been offered a whopper by Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, who has claimed that New Yorkers should have no concerns about the bill’s waivers allowing states, in effect, to price out of the insurance exchanges older and sicker Americans with pre-existing conditions (a consequence confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office’s recent scoring). Faso asserts the waiver provision could affect only 7 percent of Americans and not New Yorkers because New York law protects consumers and the state would not seek a waiver.
Faso seems to not understand that I, like many of his constituents, have family members and friends who do not live in New York or benefit from its protections. I do care about how the AHCA will affect them. His claim that he is responsible only for his district, but he voted for a bill that threatens the security of millions of Americans.
Faso’s stance is consistent with the ethics regime of Trump’s “make America great again” program: greatness is built on isolation from one’s neighbors and friends (to hell with NATO), on thinning out the weak from the strong (“compassion” for those who pay taxes), and on getting away with naked political maneuvering whitewashed with thinly disguised lies.

Publishing History


Albany TU 6/16

"Compassionate Carnage" Tom Denton Letter to the Editor

Compassionate Carnage

The policy positions of Donald Trump, whose thoughts were recently described by columnist David Brooks as “six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar,” can usually be tied directly to one of his advisors. The “carnage” inaugural speech and travel ban were straight out of the Steve Bannon master plan. Paid parental leave is pushed by the gentler hand of Ivanka. Now the Trump budget comes steamrolling into Congress, and the name of Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is written all over it. Upon its release the former Freedom Caucus congressman Mulvany said, “Compassion has to be on both sides of the equation. Yes, you have to have compassion for the people receiving federal funds, but you also have to have compassion for the folks who are paying it.” With these words the famous phrase from Senator Pat Moynihan gets arevision: “Defining deviancy up.” Given the enormous tax breaks that will accrue primarily to the enormously wealthy under Trump’s budget and tax reform plans, we are now to understand that the superrich have for too long been oppressed and exploited by welfare cheats, disability fakers, emergency room abusers, seniors with their thermostats set way too high while they accept heating assistance and free home-delivered meals, whew! children with special needs, the list goes on. The question remains, What more do the billionaires want that they don’t already have? What can we give them? A liver, if they need it? Our best genes that can be harvested? Our first child, if they want it?
Kind of makes you want to body slam the guy. And hey, it’s the new cool thing to do.


PublishingHIstory

NP Times 6/8